Why Are Soccer Balls Made of Hexagons?

Once upon a time, soccer balls (or footballs, depending on where you hail from) were made using inflated pig bladders that were wrapped in leather. The ancient Chinese game cuju was an early form of soccer too, though players used a ball stuffed with feathers. In medieval England, players even used leather-covered wine bottles filled with cork shavings (to make them easily retrievable if they fell in the river).

But it wasn’t until 1844 that the modern-day soccer ball as we really know it started taking shape, and that’s because that is the year when inventor Charles Goodyear patented vulcanized rubber.

1. The Evolution of Soccer Balls in History
2. Why Are Soccer Balls Black and White?

The Evolution of Soccer Balls in History

In 1855, Goodyear created the first rubber soccer ball, after establishing the patent on vulcanized rubber a decade earlier. Then, seven years later, H.J. Lindon developed an inflatable rubber bladder to make the ball easier to kick while still maintaining its pseudo-spherical shape.

White soccer balls became the standard in 1951. Companies whitewashed the leather, and in the 1960s, began to use synthetic materials to achieve uniform thickness and prevent the balls from becoming misshapen. If teams played winter matches, official orange soccer balls were manufactured for better visibility.

Why Are Soccer Balls Black and White?

But the ball most commonly seen today—the one with black and white pentagons and hexagons—gained popularity in the 1960s. Previously, leather soccer balls consisted of 18 sections stitched together: six panels of three strips apiece. This design stitched together 20 hexagons with 12 pentagons for a total of 32 panels.

The ball made its World Cup debut as Adidas’ Telstar in 1970 in Mexico. The ball’s pattern of white hexagons with black pentagons made it easily visible on television. As a bonus for players, the black pentagons helped them learn to curve the ball better by being able to track its movement more easily.

Adidas kept the ball’s black-and-white color scheme until 2002, but the 32-panel buckyball might not stay in vogue much longer—Adidas launched its new generation of soccer balls for the 2006 and 2010 World Cups with the Teamgeist (14 panels) and Jabulani (eight panels) designs, respectively.

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A version of this story was originally published in 2013 and has been updated for 2025.